AstraZeneca (AZ) has leant its support to a new mobile app that could help doctors more easily identify high-risk heart patients.

The GRACE 2.0 app will help doctors, nurses or paramedics quickly calculate the severity of a patient's condition and help them offer the most appropriate immediate and long-term treatments.

The app is available in iPhone, iPad and Android versions and was developed by the Universities of Edinburgh and Massachusetts 

In addition to AZ's sponsorship it has the backing of the British Heart Foundation, the Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.

Prof Keith Fox is a British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at the University of Edinburgh and he led work on developing the app.

“One in five patients is likely to die within five years of their initial heart attack. Identifying those most at risk of a repeat heart attack means we can better tailor treatments to the individual and prevent further attacks,” he said.

The aim of the app is to help doctors decide if a patient needs to be transferred to a specialist cardiac centre. It will also assist them in draw up longer-term treatment plans, something that was previously relied on a six-month risk assessment.

The app draws upon data from the Global Registry of Coronary Events (GRACE) and includes details of more than 100,000 heart attack patients in 14 countries over ten years. It also incorporates data from a further 3,700 heart attack patients in Scotland and Belgium over a five-year period.

The app will help clinicians work out whether the benefits of certain therapies outweigh their risks of side-effects to individual patients.

Risk of repeat heart attacks are calculated by taking account of a patient's heart rate, blood pressure, kidney function, severity of original attack and history of heart failure. 

The development of the GRACE app was supported in part by a sponsorship to the University of Edinburgh from AstraZeneca, whose interests in the area include Brilique (ticagrelor). The heart drug is indicated for the prevention of atherothrombotic events in adult patients with acute coronary syndromes.

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